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Dubai Police: Hamas Commander Drugged and Suffocated

   VOA News 28 February 2010
   A  hotel  security  camera shows men in tennis outfits following Hamas
   commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh into his hotel room

   A  hotel  security  camera shows men in tennis outfits following Hamas
   commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh into his hotel room

   Dubai police say forensic tests reveal that the Hamas commander killed
   at a Dubai hotel was drugged and then suffocated.
   Police  said  Sunday  the  killers suffocated the leader with a pillow
   after  sedating  him  with  a muscle relaxant (called succinylcholine)
   that is often used as an anesthetic in surgeries.
   Dubai  police  believe that a hit squad backed by Israel's spy agency,
   Mossad,  carried  out  the  January  murder  of  Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a
   founding member of the Hamas military wing.
   Police have arrested at least two Palestinians in Jordan in connection
   with the killing and have extradited them to Dubai.
   The  murder caused an international uproar when it was learned that 26
   other  suspects in the case were carrying fake passports from Britain,
   France,  Ireland, Germany, and Australia.  Dubai police allege many of
   the  fraudulent documents involved the stolen identities of people who
   also have citizenship in Israel.
   Israel's  Foreign  Minister  Avigdor  Lieberman  has  said there is no
   reason to assume his country was behind the murder.
   Israeli officials have declined to comment further.
   Special  British investigators are in Israel to probe the use of false
   passports  from  their  country and four others in connection with the
   murder.
   All five countries have protested to Israel about the purported use of
   fake passports linked to their citizens.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP.

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